A place to write my way to understanding about issues related to teaching and learning. (Because of my experience, my focus is on mathematics education.) Please join me as I explore the changing educational landscape.

Friday, August 24, 2012

The following was originally posted on my other blog, the Learning Museum. But I noticed this week that I have not given that blog any attention in almost a year. So I considered shutting it down and moving some of the posts here. I was having a hard time deciding where to start though. An exchange on Twitter today provided me with an answer. The exchange got me thinking about why I try to use the term learner instead of student when talking about the people that I teach. Consequently, this post seemed to be a good one to move since it includes the video that first introduced me to the idea of teaching learners rather than students.

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For those of you familiar with my TEDx Talk, it will come as no surprise that the first exhibit in the Learning Museum included the following video from the Council on 21st Century Learning (C21L). If we want to know what learning looks like, we need to identify some of its key characteristics. This Venn diagram might help us in identifying these characteristics as we consider what learners do compared to what students do in the video.

Here is the first in a series of three videos available from C21L that attempt to get at the differences between students and learners.

How are students and learners alike and how are they different? Here are some of the characteristic identified by teachers in training:

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The idea of MTT2K began when a group of preservice teachers could not wait until the end of a Khan Academy video to voice their concerns about the quality of its content. (You can learn more here.) Once the movement to critique Khan Academy videos gathered some momentum, it was suggested that teachers do more than nitpick (although, as this post explains, nitpicking is important). Consequently, a group of bloggers set out to make 101 alternative lessons.

Nine alternatives were scheduled as of today - the day before the MTT2K prize deadline. While this is less than we hoped for, it is a start. The energy behind projects like the mathtwitterblogosphere demonstrates how we all benefit when teachers make their own lessons available for others to use and improve on.

The lesson I want to share comes from that same day when the preservice teachers watched the Khan Academy video. We were focusing on NCTM's Communication Standard that day, and I wanted to share examples of people communicating the ideas associated with integer multiplication and division. Many of the area schools use PowerPoints in their math classrooms, so I wanted to model how I might use this medium to communicate my thinking.

The think-aloud focused on my approach to trying to understand some integer rules I memorized years ago. I used "I language" to remind the learners that I am making my thinking visible, not telling them what to do. Afterward, we debriefed about what they saw and heard and how what I shared might support their ability to understand the concept for themselves. (The demonstration is split into two parts because Jing only allows for 5 minute recordings.)

Monday, August 13, 2012

Near the beginning of the Olympics, Michelle Rhee introduced the first in a series of videos using the Games as an analogy for her view of the state of our educational system in the United States. On July 22nd, Ms. Rhee, the founder and CEO of Students First, shared the video below on Meet the Press (about 34 minutes in).

Since then, Ms. Rhee has written an opinion piece forUSA Today and shared another video on CNN espousing her Olympic-Education analogy. All this attention has me wondering why Ms. Rhee has become the spokesperson for education reform. It also has me concerned that thanks to the attention that she gets from an often unquestioning news media we are focusing our efforts on the wrong things when it comes to improving schools (I wrote about it here). But no one seems to be listening. Well, the success of MTT2K in using satire to grab the media's attention got me thinking...

I am grateful that John Golden was once again willing to join me in what is probably another Quixotic endeavor. Amazingly, we were also able to get Nancy Flanagan to be a part of our amateur acting troupe. It is my hope that this short skit will highlight some of the issues we have with both Ms. Rhee's stance on educational reform and how some in the news media have embraced it.

If you are interested in the original script (which includes links supporting some of the points that we make), you can find it here. I want to thank John, Nancy, and Luann Lee for their writing contributions. In case you are interested in playing your own version of this game, you can get an apple piñatahere.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

According to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at GVSU, it takes this. I am in the process of preparing my materials to be evaluated for promotion to full professor which includes the writing of an Integrative Statement. As I have done before, I would like to share my efforts with you in order to make my thinking visible and to get your feedback. It is a long statement (all of eight pages), so I understand if you want to skip this post.

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The
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) values a balanced and flexible
academic life that includes teaching, scholarship/creative activity, and
service.

Preface of CLAS Standards & Criteria
for Personnel Evaluation

Introduction: My View of Academic Life

Before Joint Appointment

I am
grateful to work in a college that recognizes the value of “a balanced and
flexible academic life.” In order to find that balance, I envision my teaching,
scholarship, and service using a Venn diagram. With teaching being my primary
focus, I see it as representing the largest portion of my efforts. Because the
nature of our work tends to pull us in different directions, I try to
concentrate the rest of my academic efforts in the areas that overlap.

After Joint Appointment

Maintaining
balance was especially important these past three years as I shared time
between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) and the College of
Education (COE). My joint appointment resulted in new courses to teach, more
scholarship opportunities, and extra service expectations. As I became
comfortable in this appointment, I saw how the experience provided an
opportunity to expand each of these areas. Consequently, the overlapping areas
that represent my balanced academic life also expanded.

In this
integrative statement, I intend to share several stories of the work I have
engaged in that demonstrate my attempts to lead a balanced academic life while
meeting the CLAS expectations of promotion to full professor. Since my joint appointment
has been central to my recent growth as an academic, many stories will come
from that experience. These experiences do not represent the complete picture,
however. I will also share how my efforts to improve my teaching of courses in
the Department of Mathematics lead to greater opportunities for scholarship and
service. This integrative statement concludes with an overview of future plans
for my academic life. In order to put this information into context, I begin by
providing an overview of my efforts in each of the academic areas.

(If you
are reading this document electronically and have access to the Internet,
hyperlinks have been included that will take you to online content offering
further information regarding my academic efforts.)

Overview: Teaching,
Scholarship, and Service

The CLAS considers effective
teaching as the primary responsibility of its faculty. This emphasis is one of
the reasons I joined GVSU, and data from peers and students recognize that I am
dedicated to enhancing learning. Colleagues’ comments from classroom
visitations acknowledge my efforts to create an environment where students take
a central role in their learning. Furthermore, the average response to question
#15 (“I have benefited by having this instructor.”) on student evaluations is
usually between 1 and 2 indicating strong agreement or agreement with this
statement (see Appendix A). The stories shared in the remainder of this
document include specific examples of other ways I have demonstrated a
commitment to teaching effectiveness. In order to make the rationale supporting
my promotion to full professor clear, the CLAS criteria for effective teaching
are coded in blue and precede the narrative. (Teaching artifacts are found in
Appendix B.)

In the
area of scholarship, I have a consistent record of contributing to the areas of
education and mathematics education. This includes research papers, articles
for practitioner journals, the sharing of resources through social media, and
presentations to local, state, national, and international audiences. My 2010
TEDx Talk and 2011 keynote at a mathematics conference in Canada
represent my recent efforts to continually expand my contributions to my
discipline (see Appendix C). Again, throughout the remainder of this statement,
the CLAS criteria for scholarship introduce the narrative rationale; this time
the criteria are coded in red.

Since my
last promotion, service is probably the area of my greatest growth. The joint appointment played a prominent role in that growth and contributed
significantly to my meeting of the CLAS expectations for promotion to full
professor. One of the major goals of the Appointment was to foster greater collaboration
between the CLAS and the COE. As a result, I was added to the Professional
Teacher Education Advisory Council (PTEAC), assigned to guide a new CLAS major with an
education focus through the university’s governance system, included as the
co-principle investigator on a state grant for teacher improvement, asked to
help redesign the COE’s teacher assisting seminar, and drafted to be one of the
CLAS representatives on a project to develop an experimental teacher
preparation program (see Appendix D). In many cases, these experiences overlapped
with my efforts in teaching and scholarship, but where they specifically
address the CLAS criteria for service the points are coded in green

The
remainder of this integrative statement highlights the
ways that I have met or exceeded the CLAS expectations for promotion to full
professor. Because I tend to focus on where the areas of teaching, scholarship,
and service overlap, these highlights are organized by story and not by area.
In each case, color-coded expectations precede the related evidence. My integrative
statement concludes with a discussion of how my past experiences and accomplishments
will frame future efforts in teaching, scholarship, and service.

Evidence of
Meeting Criteria for Promotion to Full Professor

Applying the Research in
Literacy Instruction to Mathematics

Because
it is a rich but often under utilized resource for enhancing mathematics
education, I am exploring ways to apply research-based literacy models to the
teaching and learning of mathematics. Books and conferences on literacy
instruction have provided a wealth of ideas that I have tried in my mathematics
education courses. I have used learning centers, the workshop model, and the
gradual release of responsibility and written about the experiences on my blog
(see hyperlinks).

Continual course development to enhance
learning

In 2007,
I began using learning centers in MTH 221. This involved developing activities
that had several different stations situated around the classroom. Each station
had a different activity related to a central theme, like polygons. Because so
many preservice elementary teachers take this course, I wanted to model how an
approach used widely in literacy instruction could be modified for teaching
math.

Dedication to students, including treating
students respectfully and being available to them outside of class

The
workshop model has been used in my courses since 2008. It is an instructional approach
that includes four parts: schema activation, focus, activity, and reflection. Its
goal is to provide learners with a familiar framework in which they can explore
unfamiliar ideas. Workshops assigned outside of class respects students as
self-directed learners while offering a variety of resources that provide
structured support. This support includes the use of instructional technology
(such as email, BlackBoard, and Twitter) that increases my availability beyond
office hours.

Timely, fair and instructive evaluation of
student work

Clear communication with students

Another
framework that I have applied from literacy instruction is the gradual release
of responsibility. Through formative assessment, I evaluate what students can
do and where they struggle and try to offer support that moves them forward.
Sometimes what they need is a demonstration. Other times it is group practice,
or maybe they need time to practice on their own. Ultimately, the goal is for
students to learn to be able to ask for the level of support they need in order
to be successful.

Students’
written evaluations that suggest I be less vague indicate that some of them
expect greater support than I have provided. Being explicit about the level of
support I am offering has helped me to address some of the issues students have
with vague expectations, but clearly I must be even more intentional about outlining
the students’ responsibility in the process. I plan to include more reflective
papers that ask them to identify their struggles and the appropriate support
they need.

Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to
discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley
State University

Work-in-Progress

I have worked
with colleagues in the Department of Mathematics to share how we apply literacy
ideas to mathematics with a larger audience. I have presented sessions on the
literacy-mathematics connection at local, state, national, and international
conferences. In 2008, Dr. Billings and I wrote an article for Teaching Children Mathematics describing
how reading strategies were used in a course for preservice elementary
teachers. Recently, a group of us
submitted a paper to Mathematics Teaching
in the Middle School on how the workshop model supports the teaching of the
Mathematical Practices from Common Core State Standards.

Social Media

Over the
past year, I began exploring how technology might be applied to education. As the
role social media is playing in the lives of our students continues to grow, it
seems important to find ways to leverage this medium. I decided to pay
particular attention to the areas of Twitter and blogging.

Clear communication with students

Two
summers ago, Dr. Golden and I brainstormed ways to use Twitter with our teacher
assistants. We thought it might be a way to stay connected with them while they
were in their placements. It also offered the opportunity for us to make our
thinking visible to our students. As we tweeted seminar ideas back and forth,
the teacher assistants could “listen” in. Dr. Golden piloted the project the
Fall of 2010, and we soon found that there was a worldwide network of teachers
that we could connect with through this platform. One of our graduates even got
support from a Canadian educator as she planned a lesson for a job interview.
She got the job.

Tangible contributions to the local,
regional, national and/or global community

Several
people had encouraged me to keep a blog on education as a way to record ideas
shared in class for students to access later.It also made the ideas available to the larger education community. Thus
far, I have written over 120 posts viewed by more than 15,000 unique users from
over 140 different countries.

Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to
discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley
State University

The
combination of using Twitter and blogging also resulted in an invitation to
give a keynote at the 2011 Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’
Association Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. One of the organizers
follows me on Twitter. He read my blog, watched my TEDxGrandValley talk, and
contacted me about speaking. Whenever someone questions my use of social media,
I recount this story. Needless to say, I remain a proponent of its use in
education and have done several local and state conference presentations with Dr.
Golden on its ability to connect with the larger education community.

Comprehensive Science and Arts
for Teaching Major

The
Comprehensive Science and Arts for Teaching (CSAT) Major was developed to
replace the special education certification that the State of Michigan was no
longer going to recognize.

A record of active participation in
appointed committees, task forces, and duties linked to special assignments

Contributions of service linked to
achieving the goals of the strategic plans of the unit, college and/or
university

My first
assignment during my joint appointment was to guide the CSAT Major through Grand
Valley’s governance process. There was a deadline for the change and I was
charged with working to ensure that we made the transition before it passed. A
final plan had been co-written by faculty from the CLAS and the COE but I was
responsible for negotiating changes and amending the document.

Thoughtful
and effective development of curriculum

Once the CSAT Major was approved, I was assigned to be its
coordinator. This entailed working with other unit heads to ensure that necessary
courses would be available for students in the major and finding faculty to
staff the major’s capstone course. A draft syllabus for the capstone, developed
by Dr. Jann Joseph and myself, stressed an integrative approach to teaching content
in the elementary classroom. Dr. Kasmer agreed to teach the course and did the
majority of the work that enabled the capstone to be both a Supplemental Writing
Skills and a hybrid course.

Effective academic and professional
advising

I also
worked with the CLAS Academic Advising Center to help set up advising for
students transitioning into the new major. We used a group advising approach so
that the advisors would be able to support one another while helping to guide
students through the change. Advising is one of the most important things I do
but because it is not something I do routinely it helps to have other knowledgeable
advisors available if there are questions. The group advising proved effective
and it is still used, although I am no longer the CSAT Coordinator.

The CSAT Major needed a
long-term coordinator, but my joint appointment was designed to be only three
years. Also, there was another collaborative project between the CLAS and the
COE in development. Therefore, I turned my attention to the joint effort to develop an experimental teacher preparation program.

W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow
Wilson Teaching Fellowship Program

The
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation seeks to prepare individuals with
experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to teach in
high-needs secondary schools. In 2010, a group of faculty from the CLAS, the
COE, and local districts came together to create an experimental program for
preparing up to fifteen fellows for success in teaching secondary science or
math.

A record of active participation in
volunteer committees and/or task forces

Self-critique and personal pedagogical
development

Together,
we developed a program that went beyond the typical teacher education
curriculum. This included activities that would build positive relationships among
the Fellows and a residency program based on those found in medical education.
I was also part of a sub-committee that designed a course for the new program,
an adaptation of the COE’s current classroom management course. I had taught
this class to undergraduates and I was excited to use my experience of what had
and had not worked to improve the course. First, we shifted the focus from
managing classrooms to facilitating learning environments. The course would be
split over two semesters to reflect the fact that the Fellows’ understandings
of engagement would grow with experience. I taught the course and between the
summer and fall semester I adjusted the content to better meet the needs of the
fellows. Because they were being immersed in the classroom culture in high-needs
schools, the Fellows required more concrete support than we had originally planned.

Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to
discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley
State University

My
experience with this project also provided opportunities to present invited and
peer-reviewed talks at national conventions. During the summer of 2011, I was
asked to give two talks at the Convening of Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows in
Indianapolis, Indiana. Also, a proposal written by several members of the
program development team was accepted for the Association for Teacher
Educator’s 2012 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Unfortunately, another
project involving the observation of math student teachers and my role as a
supervisor for Fellows’ student teaching precluded me from attending this
event.

A record of participation in
student-centered events such as student recruitment, scholarship interviews,
and student registration

While I
am not scheduled to teach any more courses in this program, I continue to
support it. Each year I have helped in reviewing Fellows’ applications. This is
a natural extension of my work on the Graduate Committee for the Department of
Mathematics. In this role, I look over the materials of prospective teachers to
see whether or not they have the necessary mathematics courses to ensure their
success in teaching in the secondary mathematics classroom.

Educators’ Mathematics Content
Collaborative

The joint appointment also provided opportunities to further
develop my relationships with area teachers through professional development projects. The
Educators’ Mathematics Content Collaborative (EMCC) brought faculty together
from the COE and the Department of Mathematics to work with local teachers.

Preparing and submitting grant proposals

Receiving competitive grants for scholarly or creative activity

I was the
co-principle investigator of EMCC with Ellen Schiller from the COE. This was a Michigan
Department of Education Title II grant for almost $200,000. The grant supported
middle school mathematics and special education teachers in improving their
mathematical content knowledge and instructional methods.

Active use of one’s scholarly/creative endeavor in the classroom

Engaging in scholarly work that is student-centered, actively
engages students, and provides a high-impact learning experience

The mathematical
content portion of the grant was my primary responsibility. This entailed
working with my colleagues in supporting the development of monthly workshops
during the school year and two multiday summer institutes. During the Winter
2011 semester, the only time available for many of the inservice teachers to
meet conflicted with the teaching schedules of nearly all the GVSU faculty, including mine.
I saw this as a chance to bring the practicing teachers and my preservice
teachers together to discuss the topics of assessment and evaluation. On two
occasions these two groups met for an hour. The preservice teachers benefited
from the inservice teachers’ experience and the inservice teachers appreciated
our students’ content expertise and creativity. I am using this model to plan a
joint 329-629 course during the Fall 2012 semester.

Scholarly or creative activity that is
subject to discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand
Valley State University

The Educators’
Mathematics Content Collaborative included attendance at the 2010 Chicago
Lesson Study Conference and 2011 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. A small group of us also presented at the
NCTM Conference on what we had learned about trying to design and implement a
job-embedded professional development project.

Lesson Study

This was the second time I had attended the Chicago Lesson
Study Conference.

Active, vigorous engagement with students
in the classroom and other learning environments

Continued growth and productivity within one’s scholarly or creative
activity

Participation in the larger community of that scholar’s discipline

The first
time was in 2009 with three mathematics majors. These students were in our teacher assisting
seminar, which uses The Teaching Gap
as a text. This book describes how Japan uses Lesson Study to improve teaching
and these students were excited to learn more about this approach. With the
support of the CLAS and the COE, I traveled with the students to this national
conference. The following Fall, the students presented what they learned to the
COE at one of their assemblies.

Evidence of assessment, evaluation and/or
development of curriculum

Remaining current in the areas of teaching
responsibility and revising coursework to reflect changes that emerge in those
areas

This was
my first semester in the COE as a part of my joint appointment. One of the
courses I was assigned to teach was the COE’s side of the teacher assisting
seminar. I received a great deal of support that semester from Mr. Schultz, the
seminar coordinator. At the end of the semester, he asked to meet with me about
my thoughts on the seminar. He had read The
Teaching Gap because of our presentation and was interested in
brainstorming ways to implement a version of Lesson Study in teacher assisting.
Over the winter break, we met with some of the other seminar instructors and
rewrote the curriculum to focus on development, implementation, and analysis of
lessons by the teacher assistants. This curriculum has now been in place for
five semesters and is viewed as an effective way to support our
teacher-candidates in becoming reflective practitioners.

Scholarly or creative activity that is subject to
discipline-appropriate peer review and distributed outside of Grand Valley
State University.

This
episode also contributed to a presentation proposal that was accepted for the 2011
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Conference in San Diego,
California. I presented with the COE Associate Dean, Dr. Caryn King, on the
success of the joint appointment in fostering improved communication and
collaboration. The story of how three mathematics majors aided in the evolution
of the COE’s teacher assisting seminar held a prominent place in the presentation.

Future Plans

The
previous pages highlight my professional efforts and detail how these efforts
address the CLAS expectations for promotion to full professor. This is not an exhaustive
list, merely representative of my best, most recent work in teaching,
scholarship, and service. There is more I could share (please see my Curriculum
Vita in Appendix A) but space is limited and I wanted to focus on providing a
complete picture of these highlights. I also wanted to leave room to describe
where I see myself growing professionally in the future.

Teaching

In working with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching
Fellowship Program, I was introduced to a variation on the coaching model we
currently use in teacher assisting and student teaching. One of the districts
uses Cognitive Coaching, which mentors people using a metacognitive process;
this helps teachers to be more aware of their thinking around their practice.
The model we use is a bit more restrictive because of its focus on the act of
teaching.

I am
interested in learning more about Cognitive Coaching and possibility enrolling
in the training course. My wife, a certified elementary teacher with an
Educational Specialist degree, took the training and has found it beneficial to
her teaching practice.It is my hope
that this metacognitive approach to mentoring will enhance my current efforts to
help college students to be self-sufficient, lifelong learners.

Scholarship

My
experience presenting at a TEDx event and keynoting in Canada has reinforced my
desire to disseminate the work we are doing in the Department of Mathematics at
GVSU even more broadly. Consequently, I find myself writing more conference proposals
for a wider variety of audiences. As a result, my wife and I are presenting a
paper on different coaching approaches at the Mentoring Conference this fall.

I would
also like to formalize some of the writing that I have been doing on my blog.
Several posts focus on the Teaching-Learning Cycle, a framework we find useful
in helping our preservice teachers to understand the complex nature of what it
means to be an educator. My wife is also interested in this topic and we have
contacted a publisher who has encouraged us to begin writing a manuscript.

Service

Recently,
I have come to understand more clearly the need for a united effort between K-12
schools and universities to improve public education. In these difficult
economic times, universities can offer resources in the form of expertise and
possible apprentices (preservice teachers). At a recent PTEAC meeting, a local
administrator told us that universities need to do a better job of marketing
themselves to school districts, and that one of the best ways to do that is
through Intermediate School Districts (ISD). Therefore, I intend to develop professional
relationships with the Muskegon, Kent, and Ottawa ISD. My goal is to connect
with local districts and offer my support and the support of the future
teachers with which I work. I see this having the potential to being beneficial
for all involved.

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If you made it all the way through, I am impressed. I would appreciate any feedback in the comments before I share it with my department on August 20th. Thank you in advance.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Soon after we first posted Mystery Teacher Theater 2000 Episode 1 and it started getting attention, John and I began to consider, "Now what?" As we so often do, we tried to make this thinking visible by sharing it on Twitter.

In retrospect, I regret using "snarking" and "snark" in this discussion because, as I have written before, the original videos (yes videos, another one came out recently) were meant to be satire. Still, hopefully these tweets demonstrate that John and I try to take a meta perspective when it comes to education.

Well, that's enough background. We hope the message of this version speaks for itself. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Meta Mystery Teacher Theatre 2000.

I hope you stuck around after the credits, there is a surprise waiting for those who persevered through the entire video.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The second episode of Mystery Teacher Theater 2000 came out last week.

My partner in MTT2K, John Golden, did an excellent summary of his perspective on Khan Academy here. In this post, I want to give a bit of background on how we came to use this video and expand on John's point that "at some level this is two guys goofing around to make a point about good use of resources."

I first saw Khan Academy's video, Introduction to matrices, while doing an observation of a student teacher. As a part of the lesson, the student teacher decided to show this nearly twelve minute presentation to a class of precalculus students. Throughout the video, the students paid very little attention to the screen and the student teacher ended up going over the basics again.

The idea of having over 3,000 videos on a variety of subjects available to anyone with an internet connection is appealing to me. If the quality of the videos is suspect, it is less attractive but it really is none of my business. When those videos are assigned to K-12 students to watch either in class or after class, then it is part of my responsibility as a teacher educator to question their use. In this case my question would be, "Is this video worth showing in class or could the time be better used?"

In other words, how is this video better than:

the teacher providing this information through a more interactive lecture;

the students reading the textbook section on matrices; or

the class working on an "archeology project" where they try to discover the basics of matrices using artifacts strategically "found" by the teacher?

Grant Wiggins talks about the juice needing to be worth the squeeze when it comes to assessments. I would say the same could be applied to other instructional decisions like the use of Khan Academy videos as a part of a school's curriculum. In the case of the student teacher, I would say it was definitely not worth the time it took to watch the video and get the students focused back on the lesson.

Perhaps the problem is that the videos were not intended for whole group instruction. A recent post from a Teach for America staff member explains how he used Khan Academy to help differentiate his instruction.

I could point my most advanced students towards videos instructing them on multiple application of a particular theory while I simultaneously walked students struggling with the same notion through a lesson explaining its fundamental premises. It helped me to be a better teacher who reached more of my students more effectively.

Several promotional videos from Khan Academy offer the same testimonial. Teachers assign Mr. Khan's videos to students to watch while the teachers work with smaller groups. Here are two teachers from Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, California talking about using Khan Academy in their classrooms.

If Khan Academy helped these middle school teachers to break out of the mindset of simply giving notes to students, then I really do owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Khan. However, because valuable school time is being used to watch these videos I must push these teachers to think about what comes next. Repackaging the lecture as a video is not a re-imagining of education nor is it true differentiation of learning.

The way they are using the videos sounds more like addressing a classroom management issue than truly facilitating learning. If these teachers are looking for something productive for other students to do while they work with small groups, then I would encourage them to talk to their colleagues who teach reading and writing and manage small groups regularly without assigning videos. I can think of at least a half-a-dozen things that are more worthwhile to do in class than watching a video like the one I sat through during that precalculus lesson.

I will write another post about alternative activities (if there's any interest) but this post is getting long and I want to give those teachers who assign Khan Academy videos to their classes a chance to respond to the question, "Is it worth it?" Please post your comments below with the understanding that any off-topic comments will be deleted - I would not want you to waste your time.

About Me

I am a professor in the Mathematics Department at Grand Valley State University. Mostly, I teach future teachers but I also do some professional development with inservice middle school teachers. My six-word teaching philosophy is: "Agency and capacity fostering sustainable learning."
My wife, Kathy, is a first grade teacher. She is the person who keeps me grounded in educational reality when I begin to get too idealistic. I have also learned a great deal from her about comprehension strategies and instructional coaching.
I have three adult step-children (Hilary, John, and Andrew).